rounding the bases

What a long strange trip its been. Wow, sorry for so long without a post. (I think Twitter is definitely having an effect on blog posts, since its so easy to continually microblog there.) The last couple days before leaving LA were slammed with work and a last minute packing job, of which I way overpacked. oops. It might be worth the expense to ship some of that back even, we will see. Anyway, I made it fine to my crack o' dawn flight from LAX, albeit without sleeping. The stopover in JFK was a hardly a joy - Delta's terminal there is a mess, and the tunnels and stairways and platforms we were sent through are embarrassingly slum-like. I feel bad for tourists whose first impressions of the US are made there. After an hour of searching I managed to find a wifi spot to send some needed work files (I had even offered to pay a nail salon for use of their wifi, which kept showing up on my laptop, but no such luck. So much for everything in NY having a price.) I then shuffled onto the plane to Berlin. The wall of jetlag hit about an hour or two after getting here. I've learned to almost write off your first day and a half when making this trip, so I did my best to sleep it off. By midnight I finally made it up and out to grab some döner - which I always say I'm going to write more about and never do. For all the talk of currywurst and sausages, I would say döner kebap is far more common in Germany. It is a Turkish dish of lamb shaved off a rotating spit served in a variety of ways, but most commonly on bread like a sandwich. I'm always surprised that it isn't found much in the US, but it seems to be on almost every corner here. Having a great stand right across from my hotel may end up being a curse for the next week. After that, it was around to some of my usual Berlin watering holes where all sense of time is lost (especially given the travel), only to walk out to a sun already coming up. I gave myself the day to do some more work and recharge in the hotel, hopefully my body is coming around to being adjusted soon, but I think I still managed to touch the bases in my first 24 hour lap in Berlin.